CVC Asks CMS to Remove High-Cost Supplies and Equipment from the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

WASHINGTON, D.C.— This week, the CardioVascular Coalition (CVC) submitted official comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed rule for the CY 2025.

The CVC letter emphasizes that the proposed rule would impose yet another round of significant cuts to private practice office-based interventionalists, and how the rule would make the problem of limb salvage provider deserts worse. Furthermore, the comment letter highlights the fact that if the proposed rule is finalized, Medicare reimbursement for 300 office-based services would be less than direct practice costs.

READ THE 2025 PFS COMMENT LETTER:

The letter states, in part, “Cuts to office-based interventionalists have become so severe that, in 2024, there are 195 procedures across service lines that are paid at rates less than the direct costs associated with those procedures – as calculated by CMS itself. In the 2025 PFS Proposed Rule released in July, this number would grow to 300, a 50% increase. In other words, for 300 services, CMS will not pay clinicians in private practice enough to cover the direct expenses of those services before even considering other costs like physician work and indirect costs.”